Mark, on the more commercial sites I get involved in, they have an area
that is for Trade info. There's an etiquette to it , rival trade folk try not to
directly diss each others products (not that this if always adhered to)but a
thread on say one brand of kite would not normally expect to be taken off
topic to discuss another, by the vendor of that other brand.

And frankly you are an embryonic business, this area (by those with
commercial interest) should be by paid subscription to ensure we
continue to enjoy the rest of it. We're (none fee paying public) free to post
and ask questions.

Its a free service for us, it is like it or not a level of enjoyment to chatter
in much the same as we would at the beach or the bar and in those
environments all manner of different characters abound - it's life - deal
with it, not everyone likes everyone else.

Rick irritates the life out of me, I dare say I irritate the life out of him and
many others, but at the end of the day a forum full of lurkers isn't much
fun for anyone is it?

But without it and each other we'd all be the worse off.

Charge the traders, a small fee, I'm sure they'd happily pay it to assuage
any guilt they might have of commercially assaulting us, and if we don't
want to be assaulted, don't go in the Trade area..

Same as if you dont like me, don't bloody involve yourself in a post
directed at me - it's not Rocket Science.

But it is the future, the internet is charging ahead as a commercial vehicle
and it is fully interactive, don't like something and we can say so.
Better to know that for someone in the commercial risk business, better to know than fill
your warehouse with boats folk feel are ugly expensive and under equipped,
better to then change it to the way folk want it and make even more
money, be successful, make more boats people actually want than
something that might just happen to be your pet project..

This market more than any I know, need to embrace this form of medium
it needs to drastically change the way it's working, if I told you just how
many companies in the marine busines were on the verge of commercial
extinction, you'd be surprised.

Right now there has been no better time for UK commerce, We are the
worlds leading sailing nation, we have excellent design, build and retail
capability, we are also per capita the leading internet market world wide we should be
charging ahead.

In an environment like this every single one of us has a part to play.
Wether we are the market, selling to it, building for it.

Mark and his online resource needs all the input anyone can give him,
remember it wasn't five minutes ago his parent organization failed.

The recent Altercation? Why I bet that went round the world, better that
than obscurity, better folk come to watch, sorry it's what sells papers..

My suggestion is that Dinghy Development was always an incongrous title. The forum should be split. Clearly a One Design section is needed and this will hopefully focus people on the fact that OD design does not mean development.

A good idea - I've now moved a few recent discussions to this new area. Looking through the topics I also think there should be a Dinghy Sailing Clothing area - what do you think?

Whilst acknowledging
that there’s a danger of having too many subsets to the dinghy classes section;
I do think that there’s room to have a thread for technical/theory discussion.
Buried deep in the existing long list dinghy development threads are some great
and very informative discussions on sails, foils, rigs etc. IMHO well worth
pulling them together, both for ongoing debate and for a point of later
reference.

Yes, definitely a clothing section, please. Under 'General' I guess, though the list there is getting long

I see you've implemented a separate One-Design section, tho' I really don't see the need. Not sure in which section we should be discussing the 3000, Wayfarer or such-like classes which do evolve over time even though nominally one-design. From the threads so far, I'd have thought the title Dinghy Classes was more appropriate (which would mean 3000 & W. were definitely 'in').

For ease of reference would it be possible to have a scrolling list on the home page of all recent posts to save users wading through the folders as seen Here and please don't sl*g me off because of my vehicular preferences

personally I'd rename dinghy yarns to dinghy-general and then make it clear that dinghy-development is for the cherub sailors / beardie weardies / doug lord wannabes that what to talk about the finer points of foil tip deflection. If you look at lots of the current threads in dinghy-development they're completely unrelated to boat/sail/rig development

I'd also scrap some of the other lesser used sub-sections - e.g. weather, sailing holidays, Mark Rushall corner, and just roll them back into dinghy-general section.Less sections is better (IMHO) when it comes to forums.

Totally agree. While the idea of say a clothing section
sounds good the danger is that there is so little traffic
there that no one bothers to check it and respond, so
even less traffic etc. I'm not saying some rejigging of
subdivisions wouldn't be useful, but it needs doing with
care, and fewer is indeed generally better.

I haven't found navigation too much of a problem even
recently, the high levels of posting and strength of
feeling have been mostly concentrated on specific
threads, and since threads are usually clearly named it's
not hard to sort what I'm interested in from what I'm
not.

For ease of reference would it be possible to have a scrolling list on the home page of all recent posts to save users wading through the folders as seen Here and please don't sl*g me off because of my vehicular preferences

What's wrong with just clicking "Active Topics" each time you visit the forum? Even if you visit only once a week, the list isn't all that long.

1) So we should all be a bit more respectful ... of each other 2) Don't feed the trolls, or rattle their cage etc - regardless of the 'noise' if you do they tend to only make even more 'noise'3) Do stay on this forum ... it can be fun/useful again if you follow sugestions 1 + 2 4) Take up a real hobby ... sailing maybe ?

Totally agree. While the idea of say a clothing section
sounds good the danger is that there is so little traffic
there that no one bothers to check it and respond, so
even less traffic etc. I'm not saying some rejigging of
subdivisions wouldn't be useful, but it needs doing with
care, and fewer is indeed generally better.

I haven't found navigation too much of a problem even
recently, the high levels of posting and strength of
feeling have been mostly concentrated on specific
threads, and since threads are usually clearly named it's
not hard to sort what I'm interested in from what I'm
not.

Agreed. Please don't add more sub-categories. Fewer is better. Mark Rushall's coaching corner needs putting out of its misery for a start. It just looks bad having categories around which haven't seen a post for 2 years and are covered in virtual cobwebs.

It only really needs five or six categories, maybe:

The MagazineDinghiesYachtsGeneralEvent reportingAnd maybe this trade section where commercial posters can post.

That's it. It would at least keep everything rolling over and looking fresh. Mark, I sent you a PM in July with some constructive suggestions for the forum but you didn't reply. At first I figured you weren't bothered but in hindsight it was around the time the parent company was having its problems so maybe you were busy. Did you not get it, would you like me to sent it again or are you not fussed?

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